In My Sleep, I Hear You
by I.N.J.A
Summary: A voice comes to her, it always comes to her when she sleeps.


**A/N - This is another one of my one-shots. I felt like I had to write this because it's kind of helped me get out a slump that I've been in. Hopefully you like it but if not give it a chance. Anyways hope you enjoy.  
**

* * *

Her body aches and her head hurts. She's been asleep for what she think may be days but if she's honest she not sure. She doesn't remember how she ended up feeling like this. Her memory seems to close on her whenever she tries to remember back and every time she tries to wake herself from this endless sleep her body seems to shut down even more then it already has.

Mostly she is surrounded by deadly silence. Sometimes she hear noises but nothing in particular. There are occasional bleeps and the sounds of doors opening and closing but other then that she can't define one sound from another, not least of all voices. Every voice which comes in the vicinity of her sounds the same. She don't recognise a single voice from another but there's one which stands out to her, one which she can hear clearly above all else. She doesn't know who it belongs to or even if it's real but she know it's there, be it real or in her head.

"_ You have to wake up, I can't lose you._" says the voice almost every time it comes to her.

She always tries to reply because she wants to wake up but something stops her. At times the voice is worried, continuously asking her to wake from whatever state she's stuck in but at others it simply talks to her about nothing in particular, just talking away as though she is awake and ready to reply. She hears them cry for her, their tears like a drum beat against her heart. She can feel their pain and wants to ease it but no matter what she tries she can't.

" _Please wake up...I can't lose you, not now, not like this._" Again the voice speaks to her, pleading with her to wake and make life easy once again.

No one could understand how she feels. The frustrating feeling of hearing a voice but never being able to do as they ask. She wants to help but by the sounds of the voice she's the one who needs help. She wishes she could open her eyes and find out what has happened to her, wishes she could be how she was but at the moment there is no way out for her.

" _I swear if you leave me like this...I'll never forgive you!_" the voice is angry with her, shaking at every word..

It's been talking to her for hours, desperation seeping every angle of it's sound. It's angry with her, shouting at her for behaving in such way but it's not her fault. She hates feeling like this - helpless.

_"_ _I'm sorry." _

She can hear the silence which surrounds her. She hears the door close once more and the voice is gone. Who is it that comes to her, who speaks words of comfort and need? Who is it that pleads with her? She can't tell but she knows she needs that one voice. It's her link to life, the very thing which stops her from drifting so far away there is no going back. Without the voice she wonders if she'd ever wake up to life like she wants to so badly.

Days or weeks pass, she isn't sure. Her feeling of helplessness increases and her heart is almost at a stop. The voice has been absent for what seems like a life time. Has the voice given up? She preys not, preys that the voice still needs her like she needs it but time seems to be ticking by so slowly and with only silence for company. But suddenly she feels something. It's not much but something around her hands tingles as though someone is there holding it, simple sitting in silence wishing for her to wake. She wants to open her eyes and see who the person is but they remain shut.

_" If you don't wake up soon they're going to give up on you and I haven't got much more left in me... I was always going to tell you but there was never a right time and now there never will be so I guess there's nothing left for me to say but I love you, I always have and I always will...and I hope you don't suffer anymore...Goodbye Katie."_

She feels her eyelids flicker as the tingling feeling detaches itself away but suddenly she has the strenght to open her eyes. She's hit with sunlight something she's deeply missed and suddenly the voice that has kept her going is recognisable. With a smile, something she always used to do before anything happen and the one which only ever rose to her lips when she looked at him,she felt the life reach her.

" I love you too, Fred."

* * *

Little over a year has passed and once more she closes her eyes and feels like she has no strenght to open them. She's tired, her eyes hurt from endless crying and she can't think of anything but the last few days. They've been some of the most stressful which she has ever experienced, people telling her how sorry they are and wishing the could make things different but how can they be.

Tears stains are marked on her cheeks. Not just hers but that of his families. She wants to be there for them, to help them through the grief but how can she when all she can do is bite back the overwhelming sensation to run and hide away. She's sees Mrs Weasley, doing her very best to keep the family from crumbling in, and Mr Weasley doing his best to keep Mrs Weasley from crumbling in. They've lost their son, she can't imagine how that feels. And his siblings, from Bill to Ginny, their sad faces aching at her heart. She held Ginny not long after it happened, stroked her hair away and told her it would be fine. Ginny didn't believe her, she'd lost a brother how could anything be okay again.

But no one had captured the pain in her heart like George. The silence which he'd been taken over by was disheartening. He'd sit alone for hours, not talking, thinking, crying. He'd do nothing. Much the same as her. She'd sat with him the day after. She'd wanted to talk to him, help him, hold him but she held back. Her life felt empty so she couldn't be the person.

And now she lays alone in her room. She needs sleep but she almost wishes she won't wake in the morning, just so she can see him one last time. She knows she had to wake but knowing is different to wanting, and she's never been one to get what she wants.

_" Katie...Kates."_

Almost as if it was real his voice once more reaches her through the darkness. She looks around for him but finds nothing but the emptiness of her usual surroundings. She closes her eyes tight once more and tries to drift into sleep.

_"_ _Katie!"_

And once more she hears him, clear as day but he can't be there, it's impossible. He died, she had stood there looking at his body for hours. If she was sure of anything it was of his death, she had after all been crying about it ever since it happened. Tired and weak, and for the third time she closes her eyes.

_" KATIE!" _

Now she knows it's real but something stops her from opening her eyes. And into the darkness she speaks herself, unsure as to whether or not someone will reply or if it's just a sign of the madness kicking in.

" Fred." she calls and waits. Moments tick by and she's almost given up hope but then it reaches her.

_" Katie I love you, I always will but you have to wake up tomorrow and the day after that and you have to carry on living. Don't give up because of me."_

She's almost scared to say anything else, maybe in fear of losing her mind or maybe out of fear that he'll once more tell her to move on with her life or maybe out of fear he won't reply anymore. She holds her breath, her brain ticking away deciding on the reality of what's happening.

" Why did you go?" she asks, knowing that she sounds childish and scared but she needs to know.

_" It was my time. "_

His words hurt her in a way she doesn't expect. He's accepted what happened and talks about it with great ease and knowing but why can't she. The softness of his voice comforts her but she feels only pain.

" I thought we'd always be together." her voice is cracked, the heavy tears quivering it without any form of difficult. " You said we would."

_" And I'm sorry. But we will be together again one day, it's just not the time now. Besides anytime you want to see me or hear me, you just have to look into your heart cos all the time you still love me that's where I'll be."_

She can feel the tears leak from the corners of her closed eyes but no longer are they sad tears. His words change to comfort and she knows what he says is true. She can feel the first smile in days reached her lips, and if she thinks really hard she can almost feel his soft lips against hers. She can sense his presence leave but she's not sad to say goodbye because he spoke words of truth.

She'd never have to say a true and eternal goodbye to the love of her life. Fred Weasley would be in her heart for the many, many years of life which she still intends to live. He'll never leave her heart.

* * *

Her body has grown with age and now it aches on a daily basis. But her heart, her heart has remained young with hope and love. She's moved on with her life, like he wanted. She found someone like herself, a handsome young man who had also lost the greatest of loves, the one who would always be in his heart. She'd shared some wonderful times with him and she had grown to love him but he had never quite grasped her heart the way Fred did. She'd had children. Three wonderful children, the greatest achievements of her life and they'd all grown to find their true loves, married and had children of their own. But she'd never shared her tales for she preferred to keep Fred to herself.

Over the many years which have passed she's thought about him every single day, she can't recall one which she didn't take some time alone to think of him. Her heart would glow whenever he reached her mind and as he said when she listened hard enough she could hear him.

It saddens her that George never got over his twins death like she did. For a good while she tried to help him through his pain but nothing ever worked. He married himself, had two children and for a few years he seemed to become the old George but it didn't last and the result was his much too early death. A lot of people said he died at the same time as Fred, and spent the next 30 years living as an empty shell but no one really knew.

She guesses she'll have to ask him when she sees him because something tells her that when she closes her eyes later in the day, it will be the last time. She knows her time has come but she doesn't feel sad. Her affairs are in order, her family's happy and most importantly she's lived a great life. And he'll be there waiting for her just like he said.

And so with a smile, she lays her head down on her pillow and she closes her eyes. It's a strange sensation but she can feel her life slipping away from her. She has no clue how long it will take but she can wait, after all she's waited this long, a little longer won't hurt...

_" Katie, you can open your eyes now. Your here."_

_She knows that voice, maybe too well but she knows it and she knows who will be looking at her when her eyes opened. _

_" Fred."_

_And with a sigh of happiness she feels young and more alive. She's back with the man she loves and nothing, not even death can split them up this time._


End file.
